Monday, April 15, 2013

Since Easter and Spring are upon us I decided to try out a table topper that could brighten up my table. I had recently purchased a tumbler template from Missouri Star Quilt Company, after watching one of Jenny's great youtube tutorials! She makes quilting so easy and accessible. For fabric for the table topper I had a lot of left over 5 inch squares (charms) in flannel from my valentines day and kids quilts projects. So I went to Joann's and got some matching Easter inspired flannel to use as the backing fabric. The tumbler template is easy to use, just place it on a charm square and cut around it. After the tumbler shapes are cut out you just sew together like any other patch work. Before you add your borders or backing you use your straight ruler to straighten the sides of the quilt.

Tumblers Sew Together

Squaring the edges, by using a straight ruler to cut off edges(Yes, our dining room wall does say VODKA,the letters were on clearance at Kohl's they didn't have the letters for VINO so we settled)

For this table topper I brought the backing fabric from the back to the front so I didn't have to do traditional binding (which I despise and just haven't really mastered-- mind you I haven't mastered bringing the backing to the front either haha!).

I have a large, square, pub style table so this may look like large table topper but it fit my situation pretty well.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Having two nephews and one niece I quickly realized that making baby quilts and kid quilts would be a job of mine if I wanted to uphold my awesome auntie status. Since I had made a rag quilt for my youngest nephew for his first birthday which was in February (2013), I wanted to also make quilts for my niece who would be turning 3 in June and my oldest nephew turning 5 in April.

When picking fabrics I wanted to do a dinosaur theme for my nephew and a girly theme for my fashionista niece. I went shopping at Joann's for fabric and decided upon flannel because of the warmth and the fact the kids live in Washington state. It was super easy to find girly flannel colors that coordinated. Dinosaur flannel was limited though, so the colors weren't necessarily what I would say are my ideal but they worked.

When picking out what type of pattern I was going to use I knew I wanted to do charm squares for ease of cutting/sewing. And I also knew I didn't want to do rag quilts because I didn't want to cut 3 of everything, or deal with snipping the rag part.

I got brave this time, I designed the quilt pattern's on my own! I got on excel and mapped out the kids names and then figured out how many charm squares I would need and got to cutting.

For the borders for both quilts I brought the backing fabric forward, instead of adding a separate binding and border. It certainly wasn't an exact process and it wouldn't be quilt show worthy, but the kids loved their quilts and didn't know anything was wonky.

My niece Ella's Quilt:

My nephew Eli's Quilt:

I finished both quilts off with printable / fusible quilt labels that I ran right through my home printer:

About Me

Hi, my name is Katie! Thank you for taking the time to check out my blog.
Some things to know about me:
I have a wonderful husband and an incredibly adorable baby boy. My full-time job is as a Career Counselor for high school and adult students who are obtaining career and technical education training.
I started quilting in November of 2012 after taking Quilting 101 at a Joann's Fabric, and then began to follow online tutorials (usually from the great Mrs. Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company). I have been addicted ever since and love to create quilts, wall hangings, bags, and more.
As my husband will attest though, please don't ask me to sew a button on clothes, repair a ripped pair of jeans, or hem a pair of pants. That just isn't fun and I'm not interested.
I am so excited to share what I make with everyone and hope that I inspire others to get into quilting or at least try something out on a sewing machine. Honestly, until my quilting 101 class I probably had only touched a sewing machine once or twice and it has been one of the easiest things to learn with the right teachers and time!